Oliver Burke’s time at Celtic doesn’t seem to have ended in the best way, judging by recent reports. The Daily Record have run comments from an employee at Burke’s parent club West Brom that were heavily critical of Celtic and Neil Lennon in particular.
Baggies technical director Luke Dowling said that the treatment Burke got from Lennon was “something we don’t expect for one of our players.” He also revealed that Burke wouldn’t be going “anywhere near Celtic”.
Dowling’s comments will be water off a duck’s back to Lennon and the Celtic support. However they do paint an interesting picture of Burke’s tenure at the club and a certain match.
Burke and Lennon’s relationship
The Scottish international started all of Neil Lennon’s first three matches but then just three of his last 11. One of those was a bizarre appearance at Ibrox when Burke played all 90 minutes but did little apart from miss Celtic’s best chance.
The fact he started that match despite being so unfancied by Lennon does raise some interesting questions. Burke is the kind of pacey player that the Northern Irishman is usually pretty fond of. So why didn’t it work out?
We’ll never truly know but his start at Ibrox was bizarre. Celtic’s new boss did make some baffling decisions during his time as interim boss, and Burke was often involved. Celtic fans will just be hoping that was more down to not having his own players at his disposal.
Lennon will have less margin for error with his own team in place. He’ll just be glad Burke isn’t part of his plans.
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